Motorists caught using hand-held mobile phones while at the wheel face penalty points on their licence and a higher fine after stricter rules came into force today.
The maximum fixed-penalty fine has doubled to £60 and, for the first time, offenders will get three penalty points added to their licence.
Some drivers have flouted existing rules, introduced in December 2003, banning the use of hand-held mobiles and continued to talk and text while behind the wheel.
Figures from the Department for Transport show that 21 per cent of drivers admitted to breaking the law.
Police said that there have been 77,000 people fined for driving while using their mobile phones. It is hoped that the new measures, under which drivers could be disqualified for incurring too many penalty points, will deter more people.
However, road-safety campaigners said the new punishments do not go far enough and called for the use of hands-free phones to also be banned.
Jools Townsend, of the charity Brake, said: “It is high time the Government took steps to ensure the law is properly enforced, and to extend the ban on using mobile phones while driving to reflect research which shows using a hands-free phone at the wheel can be equally deadly.”
Stephen Ladyman, Transport Minister, said today that tougher rules governing the use of hands-free kits in cars could be introduced.
“There are enough people misusing a hand-held mobile phone for us to be concentrating on them at the moment. If we need to go further, then we will,” he said.
Speaking on GMTV, he said: “Let’s just remember that most kids get killed by cars in urban streets, in 30mph zones, and it is just as dangerous for people to be wobbling around roundabouts or going around their city streets using their mobile as it is using it on a motorway.”
Under the new measures a fixed-penalty fine of £60 could rise to £1,000, or £2,500 for a driver of a bus, coach or heavy goods vehicle, if the case reaches court.
Meredydd Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) roads policing spokesman, said: “Driving whilst using a mobile phone is not acceptable and these penalties will hopefully deter those who think they are above the law.”
The AA said that the new rules paled when compared to the threat of a jail sentence for causing a fatal crash while using a mobile phone and urged motorists to heed the warnings in a new TV campaign starting today.
via: www.timesonline.co.uk
